señorita woundy-face

Although an independent Scotland has already extended assurances that, like all the Commonwealth Realms, it would continue to recognise Queen Elizabeth II as their liege and there is the possibility too that Scotland may choose to form a republic and reject all royalty, the local's Spanish edition shares an interesting speculation:

the 18th Duchess of Alba de Tormes, the Grandee of Spain, could be created as monarch of the Scots. The clue is in the doña's barreled name, which honours all her ancestors, María del Rosario Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart y Silva—reaching back to a time before the union of Scotland and England, not counting some forty other styles and honours. Although such a change probably won't come to pass, it would be a fitting foil (to reject the Windsors) to the UK threatening Scottish exclusion to the pound Sterling if they secede.

gustatory hallucinogen

It seems rather strange that the sense of taste is a myth-bearer, and once disabused of these traditional beliefs, the contrary is still widely held, and usually as only an enhancement to the palette.
Consider this keen little primer on the distinct taste of umani—otherwise savouriness that went dismissed for a century after its isolation, an infusion by a European chef and a Japanese chemist of a new understanding of cuisine, as some imaginary and unwelcome addition to the accepted panoply of flavours, sweet, salty, bitter and sour. Asian dishes often carry notes of this taste, as do many preserved and processed foods (which surely adds to their appeal and possibly accounts for the delayed recognition) but is also present in pungent cheeses, tomatoes and mushrooms. The tongue itself was subject to misunderstanding, the terrior of tastes popularised and stuck by a poorly translated anatomic treatise by German doctor D. P. Henig, who in 1901 first described the taste-buds, papillae, which can each detect the spectrum of flavours, regardless of location. I just found it odd that umani has sort of crept in as something as created or added and not something revealed, and it seems like people are quicker to accept concepts like self-styled (mostly) super-smellers and super-tasters or synesthesia, where perceptions are automatically assigned with other cognitive macros, giving colours to the days of the week. What do you think? Are such nuances real and made digestible by giving them a scientific reality?

fyrom, kfor or wag-the-dog

Veteran reporter and author, Masha Gessen writing for Slate, shares her warzone coverage memories on the anniversary, nearly fifteen years ago to the day, when in 1999 NATO forces, under US leadership, began the intervention in Kosovo, and their presence remains today.

Gessen poses an interesting theory regarding the first bombing campaign within the former Soviet sphere of influence that came as a surprise to the old guard, a grave slight with no private warning of NATO's encroachment and roundly reenforced the idea that Russia no longer held super-power status (the wounded egos sound already smack eerily similar to the current reaction of America, taken by surprise by Russia's maneuvers in the Crimea): that the affront—then matched with an accelerated conflict in Chechnya, over Serbia and the splintered Yugoslav states made a lasting impression on the once and future king, Vladimir Putin, made heir-apparent later that same year by a retiring Boris Yeltsin. I admit that I did think that this sort of patient revenge was rather a reach initially, even considering the mention of the actions by the West in his speech, until fully reading the analysis and comparisons drawn. After the spate of over-throws of the Arab Spring, I think the West became dangerously inured to a revolutionary template, and even despite hard lessons, excepted Ukraine to proceed according to certain protocols and there's no real appetite or wherewithal for more.

toraberuposutā

Collectors' Weekly has a brilliant gallery of previously unknown Japanese deco-era travel posters, from a forgotten lot printed in the 1930s when Japan was beginning to expand its railway network and promote domestic tourism. These works of art had very limited circulation and the collection was an interpretation of the style that I had never seen before that seem equally rooted in traditional art—neither had the experts who brought the rarities to auction.